Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target

Xiaoluan Liu

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12

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Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target

Xiaoluan Liu

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 2, Issue 1)

Received: 2 December 2013 Accepted: Published: 20 January 2014

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Abstract

It is known that in Mandarin each of the five lexical tones can be assigned with an articulatorily functional target: [high] for tone 1, [rise] for tone 2, [low] for tone 3, [fall] for tone 4 and [mid] for tone 5 (the first four tones are known as full tones while tone 5 is called neutral tone). Given that the targets of full tones can change (e.g., from tone 3 to tone 2) in certain speech conditions (e.g. tone sandhi), it is natural to ask whether the same is true for Mandarin neutral tone. This is still an unresolved question, the solution of which can contribute to our understanding of articulatory “strength” as an index of speech communication which is less well explored than other areas of speech production. Motivated by the above concerns, this study uses speech production experiment to test whether the target of Mandarin neutral tone has similar target values (in terms of target slope, height, duration and strength) to those of other tones in Mandarin under three speech conditions: emotion (anger, happiness, disgust and neural emotion), sentence position of the neutral tone (sentence medial and final) and tones preceding the neutral tone (all full tones in Mandarin). The results reveal that the neutral tone is highly likely to change its target in certain combinations of the aforementioned three speech conditions. This study not only further supports previous studies on the impact of emotion, sentence position and tonal contexts on the target behavior of tones, but also highlights the possibility of Mandarin neutral tone changing from weak to strong in articulation for the purpose of effective communication, providing further evidence for “strength” as a communication index.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 2, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12
Page(s)	5-18
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Mandarin Neutral Tone, Tonal Targets, Articulatory Strength

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Xiaoluan Liu. (2014). Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 2(1), 5-18. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12

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Xiaoluan Liu. Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2014, 2(1), 5-18. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12

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Xiaoluan Liu. Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target. Int J Lang Linguist. 2014;2(1):5-18. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12,
  author = {Xiaoluan Liu},
  title = {Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {2},
  number = {1},
  pages = {5-18},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20140201.12},
  abstract = {It is known that in Mandarin each of the five lexical tones can be assigned with an articulatorily functional target: [high] for tone 1, [rise] for tone 2, [low] for tone 3, [fall] for tone 4 and [mid] for tone 5 (the first four tones are known as full tones while tone 5 is called neutral tone). Given that the targets of full tones can change (e.g., from tone 3 to tone 2) in certain speech conditions (e.g. tone sandhi), it is natural to ask whether the same is true for Mandarin neutral tone. This is still an unresolved question, the solution of which can contribute to our understanding of articulatory “strength” as an index of speech communication which is less well explored than other areas of speech production. Motivated by the above concerns, this study uses speech production experiment to test whether the target of Mandarin neutral tone has similar target values (in terms of target slope, height, duration and strength) to those of other tones in Mandarin under three speech conditions: emotion (anger, happiness, disgust and neural emotion), sentence position of the neutral tone (sentence medial and final) and tones preceding the neutral tone (all full tones in Mandarin). The results reveal that the neutral tone is highly likely to change its target in certain combinations of the aforementioned three speech conditions. This study not only further supports previous studies on the impact of emotion, sentence position and tonal contexts on the target behavior of tones, but also highlights the possibility of Mandarin neutral tone changing from weak to strong in articulation for the purpose of effective communication, providing further evidence for “strength” as a communication index.},
 year = {2014}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target
AU  - Xiaoluan Liu
Y1  - 2014/01/20
PY  - 2014
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 5
EP  - 18
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12
AB  - It is known that in Mandarin each of the five lexical tones can be assigned with an articulatorily functional target: [high] for tone 1, [rise] for tone 2, [low] for tone 3, [fall] for tone 4 and [mid] for tone 5 (the first four tones are known as full tones while tone 5 is called neutral tone). Given that the targets of full tones can change (e.g., from tone 3 to tone 2) in certain speech conditions (e.g. tone sandhi), it is natural to ask whether the same is true for Mandarin neutral tone. This is still an unresolved question, the solution of which can contribute to our understanding of articulatory “strength” as an index of speech communication which is less well explored than other areas of speech production. Motivated by the above concerns, this study uses speech production experiment to test whether the target of Mandarin neutral tone has similar target values (in terms of target slope, height, duration and strength) to those of other tones in Mandarin under three speech conditions: emotion (anger, happiness, disgust and neural emotion), sentence position of the neutral tone (sentence medial and final) and tones preceding the neutral tone (all full tones in Mandarin). The results reveal that the neutral tone is highly likely to change its target in certain combinations of the aforementioned three speech conditions. This study not only further supports previous studies on the impact of emotion, sentence position and tonal contexts on the target behavior of tones, but also highlights the possibility of Mandarin neutral tone changing from weak to strong in articulation for the purpose of effective communication, providing further evidence for “strength” as a communication index.
VL  - 2
IS  - 1
ER  -

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Author Information

Xiaoluan Liu

Department of Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, University College London, London, UK

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Xiaoluan Liu. (2014). Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 2(1), 5-18. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12

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Xiaoluan Liu. Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2014, 2(1), 5-18. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12

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Xiaoluan Liu. Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target. Int J Lang Linguist. 2014;2(1):5-18. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12,
  author = {Xiaoluan Liu},
  title = {Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {2},
  number = {1},
  pages = {5-18},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20140201.12},
  abstract = {It is known that in Mandarin each of the five lexical tones can be assigned with an articulatorily functional target: [high] for tone 1, [rise] for tone 2, [low] for tone 3, [fall] for tone 4 and [mid] for tone 5 (the first four tones are known as full tones while tone 5 is called neutral tone). Given that the targets of full tones can change (e.g., from tone 3 to tone 2) in certain speech conditions (e.g. tone sandhi), it is natural to ask whether the same is true for Mandarin neutral tone. This is still an unresolved question, the solution of which can contribute to our understanding of articulatory “strength” as an index of speech communication which is less well explored than other areas of speech production. Motivated by the above concerns, this study uses speech production experiment to test whether the target of Mandarin neutral tone has similar target values (in terms of target slope, height, duration and strength) to those of other tones in Mandarin under three speech conditions: emotion (anger, happiness, disgust and neural emotion), sentence position of the neutral tone (sentence medial and final) and tones preceding the neutral tone (all full tones in Mandarin). The results reveal that the neutral tone is highly likely to change its target in certain combinations of the aforementioned three speech conditions. This study not only further supports previous studies on the impact of emotion, sentence position and tonal contexts on the target behavior of tones, but also highlights the possibility of Mandarin neutral tone changing from weak to strong in articulation for the purpose of effective communication, providing further evidence for “strength” as a communication index.},
 year = {2014}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Mandarin Neutral Tone—does It Change Target
AU  - Xiaoluan Liu
Y1  - 2014/01/20
PY  - 2014
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 5
EP  - 18
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140201.12
AB  - It is known that in Mandarin each of the five lexical tones can be assigned with an articulatorily functional target: [high] for tone 1, [rise] for tone 2, [low] for tone 3, [fall] for tone 4 and [mid] for tone 5 (the first four tones are known as full tones while tone 5 is called neutral tone). Given that the targets of full tones can change (e.g., from tone 3 to tone 2) in certain speech conditions (e.g. tone sandhi), it is natural to ask whether the same is true for Mandarin neutral tone. This is still an unresolved question, the solution of which can contribute to our understanding of articulatory “strength” as an index of speech communication which is less well explored than other areas of speech production. Motivated by the above concerns, this study uses speech production experiment to test whether the target of Mandarin neutral tone has similar target values (in terms of target slope, height, duration and strength) to those of other tones in Mandarin under three speech conditions: emotion (anger, happiness, disgust and neural emotion), sentence position of the neutral tone (sentence medial and final) and tones preceding the neutral tone (all full tones in Mandarin). The results reveal that the neutral tone is highly likely to change its target in certain combinations of the aforementioned three speech conditions. This study not only further supports previous studies on the impact of emotion, sentence position and tonal contexts on the target behavior of tones, but also highlights the possibility of Mandarin neutral tone changing from weak to strong in articulation for the purpose of effective communication, providing further evidence for “strength” as a communication index.
VL  - 2
IS  - 1
ER  -

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